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With more than 400 sutures placed and secured, the 54 hour course with optional night courses was overwhelming, in the best possible way. After enrollment, I began the online coursework and once completed successfully, planned for the live training to get my hands-on skills prepared for the OR environment.Ħ Days of Hands-on Skills with a Phenomenal Instructor As well as being well known, it was immediately clear the NIFA program held a fantastic reputation for the quality of their graduates, and would back their training with a 100% guaranteed retraining guarantee if I was unsuccessful in my attempts to learn the skills they offered. NIFA robustly supports the first assistant market with approximately 75% of all first assistants having been through their program. (NIFA)Īfter careful research into a small handful of programs accredited to train people who are either surgical technologists, registered nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, and physician assistants to be that second set of well-trained hands as a first assistant, I chose what was overwhelmingly touted as the most well-known program around. The National Institute of First Assisting, Inc. Not only did it involve new equipment, a new environment, and new people, it required a quick learning curve to survive. The third part of my training was the transition to the operating room a first assistant, or for those unfamiliar with that world, the second set of hands working with the surgeon to perform the surgery. Inserting chest tubes, central lines, arterial lines, performing thoracentesis, amongst other hands-on skills became my responsibility, and with that, a desire for the sterile environment of the OR.
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Once it was apparent I could handle that workload, I was given the opportunity to advance my procedural skillset. I saw consults, performed discharges and saw patients in the clinic setting like anyone else. First I learned to round on our patients who had underwent cardiac surgery of some sort, whether a coronary artery bypass grafting or a valve replacement or repair, amongst others. I was fortunate to have a workplace environment with a surgeon who valued a very step-wise approach to my on-boarding process. Much like you, I wanted to be successful in my endeavors, but it was not until I was near completion of my Master’s Degree that I realized there was a considerable amount of hands-on training required beyond my didactic education. Once I began school, it was difficult to know what to plan for and what the job market was going to offer. Somewhere along the way, it became obvious that becoming a nurse practitioner was going to be my eventual calling. My Journey Cardiovascular Surgery Nurse Practitioner First Assistant